THE CAPRANICA

Dr. Piper always drives the point home well.  May we listen well.

more about “John Piper: The Achilles Heel of the …“, posted with vodpod

Here’s to cleaning out bookmarked articles I wanted to capture in my blog-files.  For years I have sensed the problem of 20s and 30+ year-olds not growing up.  Here’s a helpful response:

A Church-Based Hope for “Adultolescents” :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library

This is an excellent reflection from Sam Storms.

Enjoying God Ministries > When People See You Does God Look Good

Admittedly, I normally waste Martin Luther King Day. I can’t say that I’ve read any significant biography of Dr. King. I’ve probably never taken the day to think about his accomplishments or the implications of them. Normally, I have a normal Monday on MLK day. I don’t think that makes me [...]

I was unfamiliar with the article “A Common Word Between Us.”  John Piper’s video challenge is worth the listen even if you are as ignorant as I am about attempts between Muslim’s and Christians to come together.

A Common Word Between Us? :: Desiring God Blog

David Powlison doesn’t  make New Year’s resolutions - and he has some thoughtful reasons why.

Between Two Worlds: New Year’s Resolutions (Guest Post by David Powlison)

I needed this today.  Check out the video, linked from my online brethren at The Kettering Fellowship.

The Kettering Fellowship: Don’t Waste Your Life: Wartime Lifestyle

My good friend Sean  Higgins points to a good reminder worth your and my careful reflection.

tohu va bohu » Blog Archive » Combating Lukewarmness

In Kelly Kapic’s and Justin Taylor’s edition of three select writings from John Owen, the second book included is entitled, Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It. I began this second book recently in my quiet time reading. Here are a few excerpts from today’s reading:
The Special Nature of Temptation

[...]

What Owen dealt with in the 17th century is nothing less than the same questions I hear and personally consider on a weekly basis. Here Owen answers hypothetical questions brought up about his directive to make sure we do not speak peace to our hearts too quickly, but wait for God to do it.
How [...]

Back to Kapic and Taylor’s edition of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

Chapter 13

Owen’s ninth directive in mortifying sin: Do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it, but hearken to what God says to your soul.

[God] yet reserves this privilege
to himself to speak peace to whom he pleases, and [...]

Chapter 11 [Kapic and Taylor edition] of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers
Third Direction: Load your conscience with the guilt of [sin] (103).
Begin with generals and so descend to particulars:

Charge your conscience with that guilt which appears in it [...]

From Chapter 10 in John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers
Owen’s second direction on overcoming sin:
Get a clear and abiding sense upon your mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin wherewith you are perplexed (97).
Of the guilt of it (97).
Though the power of sin be weakened by inherent [...]

Chapter 9 in Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers
Continued from his first point on how to mortify sin – Consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has attending or accompanying it:
By applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin (92).
To apply mercy, then, to a sin not vigorously mortified is to fulfill the end [...]

Chapter 9 in John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

Owen now begins to give practical guidance on how to mortify sin:

Consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has attending or accompanying it – whether it has any deadly mark on it or no; if it has, extraordinary remedies are to be used; an ordinary [...]

At the end of chapter 7 of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers [Kapic and Taylor], Owen anticipates an objection to his first principle of how to mortify sin (one must be a true Christian). Does the suggestion that one must be a true Christian mean that unregenerate men should not [...]

Read this account of 3 Christians recently martyred for their faith in Turkey.  Pray for God’s glory to be seen and valued as a result.

Denny Burk » 3 Martyrs: Men of Whom the World Was Not Worthy

Chapter 7 of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

There will be no mortification unless a man be a believer. Unless a man be a believer – that is, one that is truly ingrafted into Christ – he can never mortify any one sin; I do not say, unless he know himself [...]

Chapter 6 of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers [Kapic and Taylor edition]
Mortification Consists in a Habitual Weakening of Sin:

Every lust is a depraved habit or disposition, continually inclining the heart to evil. . . . He is always under the power of a strong bent and inclination to sin. And [...]

From John Owen, Chapter 5 in Of the Moritification in Believers. This morning – “What Mortification of Sin is Not.”

To mortify a sin is not utterly to kill, root it out, and destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all nor residence in our hearts. It is true this is [...]